Germany: How far do you agree that the main consequence of Nazi policies towards women, in the years 1933-45, was an improvement in women’s status?

Introduction

• Whilst it could be argued that some improvements were made, it was not the most significant consequence

• Most sig cons of women policies = role of women in society being a traditional one

• Women’s economic exploitation also significant

Paragraph 1

• Short-term improvement could be argued for

• 700,000 marriage loans between 1933-39

• Marriage loans of RM600 given out across the period

• By 1939, 3m Mothers’ Cross awards given out

Paragraph 2

• It didn’t improve that much because of a decline in the quality of role played

• Despite ideology, women = 37% of workforce in 1939

• Number of female doctors fell from 10,000 in 1933 to 6,000 by 1939

• 1933 Sterilisation Law saw 400,000 people sterilised between 1933-45

Paragraph 3

• Other more significant consequence = Demographic engineering of society

• Birth rate rose from 14.7 per 1,000 in 1933 to 20.4 per 1,000 in 1939

• Annual marriages increased from 500,000 in 1933 to 740,000 in 1935

• By 1945, 11,000 children born in Lebensborn programme (state-run breeding scheme)

Paragraph 4

• Wartime economic exploitation of women also an important consequence

• Female employment rose again to 14.9m by 1943

• By 1944, 1.4m conscripted to the Reich Labour Service

• By 1945, 7m women working in war industries